In response to SCO Group"s legal action against Linux, Red Hat is offering new legal protection that guarantees the company will replace any code found to infringe copyrights.
The warranty, part of a new project called the Open Source Assurance Program, is for all existing and future customers of the Raleigh, N.C.-based company"s Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system products, the company said in an announcement Monday night, shortly before the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo that begins Wednesday in New York.
SCO alleges that IBM improperly moved Unix intellectual property into Linux and, independently, that Linux infringes on the company"s Unix copyrights. But offers of legal defense are sprouting all over the Linux landscape as advocates try to defuse threats from SCO, which has sued IBM for breach of contract and has promised to sue a Linux user for copyright infringement.